I have read many books about gratitude or the power of gratitude and I have learnt a lot from them. Today, there are so many books out there, that talk about why being grateful or counting our blessings is important, that we tend to say: "oh well, I've heard about that, it's just another book about how we must say thank you all the time" and shoo it off. Actually there is no need to write essays about being grateful for someone to understand a simple scientific logic. 

If every morning, when you wake up you start focusing about how cold or early it is, or, oh no, it's Monday again, and then gradually the coffee machine doesn't work and carries on to your train being late and once it's finally arrived, it's jam-packed; you reach your office or school or wherever you had to go, you only see everything that is going... wrong. Without realising you've went by all those things you could've enjoyed although there are other things hitting on your nerves.

Did you realise you had warm water to bathe with? Or simply you woke up from a snuggly bed?Think of those who do not have them. Things to be grateful about are so numerous that I could go on and on for days, but I have dinner to cook so I will keep it simple. 

Nowadays we can afford to live a sophisticated life with a smart phone, or simply a phone; with a car, or with transport facilities etcetera that we take all them for granted and still, wish for more. Still, wish for more sophistication. We do not realise how blessed we are to have what we already have and that the little we have maybe means the world to others.

There is an entertainment show on a French Channel (M6) called Pekin Express. Candidates from France go for an adventure or mission in pairs in remote areas of India, Africa, Indonesia and other developing countries. They only have a backpack with a map, one additional clothing and sleeping materials. They are released in a given village of the chosen country and then they have to find their own way towards the given destination, normally found very far from where they are. 

There, they need to find transport, shelter, food and they have no money and obviously they do not speak the language. But that is not what's amazing about it. What is touching to witness is that those villages or tribes that welcome them are 90% of the time, poor. They only have very basic necessities such as shelter, food, water and a place to sleep. But when the candidates are welcomed with an open heart and with so much love into their private homes, they cannot help but cry in gratitude with a pinch of sadness in their hearts.

The testimonial nearly all of them give is: "These people have only one tenth of what we have back in France. They have only shelter and food and some clothes that they have been wearing for so long. They have practically nothing compared to what we have. But they give you everything. They feel rich because they are surviving everyday. And their smiles are so genuine, so warm, so filled with satisfaction. They give you unconditionally, what we can't afford to give. And that's humanity."

Let's not expect to go on such adventures to start being grateful about what we have been given. Let's just be thankful and count our blessings everyday. Thank you. Two small and simple words yet with a powerful echo. Don't be lazy, say it!